Page:Angna Enters - Among the Daughters.djvu/199

 she had discovered in avant-garde publications. Isadora Duncan was sixty and still dancing, Ruth St. Denis was in her forties, and in New York anything could happen. Look what happened to Lucy Claudel, in a cheap Broadway show. If one was an artist, how much more. Then too her former pupil could be of help getting her started, and in time one with so much to express need not compromise with the commercial theatre. Someday she would have a small select group like Isadora's "Adorables" and all the important artists would come to her monk's cloth hung studio.

In a not-yet-draped studio on West 72nd Street Ilona explained to violet velvet coated Lucy, "You see, ballet is no longer the expression of our times. Even Diaghilev recognizes the machine age. The dance, which is the mother of the arts, must take the lead, like the cubists and futurists, in expressing our time. One must throw off old styles and follow the trend. Even Isadora is using modern themes."

"I heard about the Russian poet."

"That's not what I mean," Ilona said primly. "I am talking about art."

She elaborated her idea of forming a group which, she hoped, Lucy would join, and thus help to convince Broadway of the value of bringing art into its shows.

"You see," Lucy elucidated in turn, "Broadway is mostly interested in a good high-kicking chorus and showgirls showing all the law will allow and dirty jokes, but I would love to join your class. I'm really very interested in art even if I am only a ballet dancer."

Ilona made her feel humble though she couldn't help wondering why her first ballet teacher who had been so anxious in getting her girls into vaudeville should now talk of art, like Figente. There must be something she was missing somewhere in all this talk about art. The trouble was there were so many things to think of as well. Making a success, which meant a life as Mother and she had seen it reflected in Mode in Denver. Or now, be one of those special people, like Simone Calvette or that Vermillion whom Figente admired. Or, most important, love. What was that all about? And, after all, most people thought being a première danseuse pretty good, she thought defensively. Rh